The Handbook
by Bad Wolf and Timelords
Summary: The Doctor and Bree quarrel over the TARDIS... and a book. Second in my series called Doctor Who: Healing. see my community


Running and sliding around the controls, the Doctor pushed buttons, pulled levers, boinged boingers and babbled; the usual. Down on the second step leading towards the level beneath the glass floor, Bree sat with her legs outstretched across the step reading a book with a deep blue colour to it, slightly ignoring her friend. "So, I was thinking of where we could go today, maybe Barcelona, we could see the dogs with no noses! They're really interesting you know!" the Doctor suggested as he kept running around the console, it was a wonder the time lord didn't get dizzy. Bree didn't respond, keeping her nose in the book instead. "Okay, no dogs then. What about New Earth? Been there before, but you haven't so I guess it's okay but we'll have to go after those creepy cat nurses were taken care of, they weren't to fun you k-"

Bree swung herself forward so she faced the rest of the staircase, her feet resting on the step beneath her. Snapping her book shut, she turned her head to face the Doctor, and cutting him off said "Or you could teach me to fly the TARDIS." She suggested. That surprised the Doctor, making him accidently hit the wrong button and causing the TARDIS to come to a shuddering stop in the time vortex.

"No! Abso-LUTELY not!" he cried out in protest. "I'm the only one who flies the TARDIS and I intend to keep it that way." He said indignantly. Bree stared at him incredulously, before returning to her original reading position on the stairs.

Flipping through her blue book, once she found the page she was looking for Bree put her finger on the page. "Oh really? What about Romana?" she asked, looking from the book to the Doctor. He looked at her in shock, when he didn't respond she went on. "And what about Tegan? Grace? The Children of Time?" the finger she had placed on the page kept moving down as she read off the page. Walking towards her, the Doctor had a dark look on his face as he tried to get a good look at the book's cover before yanking the book out of the girls' hands. "Hey!" she shouted from where she sat. Before the Doctor could read the cover properly, Bree quickly made a part of the title and the name of the publisher invisible; knowing the Doctor could not be allowed to know those two pieces of key information.

The title remaining which the Doctor could read said: _The TARDIS Handbook. The Official Guide to the Best Ship in the Universe._ His face paled as he read the cover and walked away from Bree, seeing his beloved blue box pictured on the back. Flipping through, the Doctor could see numerous pictures, words, and handwritten notes by Bree pointing to numerous entries on the pages. Bree worked as quick as she could as she watched the Time Lord flip through the book to make some of the passages invisible; knowing there was even more in the book then out he could not know about. Eventually he got frustrated by the number of instantly turned blank pages. Turning back again to face Bree, he glared at her as she walked up to him. "Where, did you get this?" he asked, holding up the book. His eyes smoldered dangerously.

"A friend gave it to me. For my birthday." Bree said unwaveringly, the Doctor's eyes flashed.

"The same one who gave you the sonic screwdriver?"

"No, and you know I was the one who got it to properly work. I was the one who turned it from a toy into a tool." The pair stood there glaring at each other before they both turned their heads to look at the handbook. "It's not an instruction manual on how to fly the TARDIS you know, it's about the history and different gadgets, rooms and stuff." She said. The Doctor studied both the girl and the book for a brief moment before shoving the book back into Bree's hands. Walking around the console, he browsed the console before settling on an apparatus.

Pointing at it, he asked "What's this?" Bree walked over to the time lord and studied the spikey, revolving ball. Flipping again through her book, she found a page containing pictures of the current console. Searching for the right section of the console in the pictures, she finally found it and looked to the Doctor with the answer.

"Atom Accelerator."

The Doctor started circling the console again before picking another appliance. "And this?"

Flipping another page over, Bree settled on another labeled picture. "Gyroscopic stabiliser."

In one last attempt, the Doctor pointed to some blue buttons. "Fine then, what are these?"

Bree didn't even look in her book to find out what the buttons were. "They're what you call the blue boingers, also known as the brakes the Doctor leaves on." she said with a coy smile. The Doctor huffed, just glaring at the teen for a moment before inputting new coordinates into the TARDIS; causing to jerk and jump, tossing its inhabitants to the glass floor. "Doctor!" Bree cried as she was unexpectedly thrown to the ground, and when the TARDIS settled down, the alien in question quickly scrambled up off the floor and to where the handbook sat discarded on the floor. Grabbing it he quickly made his way to the doors. Throwing them open, outside Bree could see a supernova; and the Doctor was preparing to throw her book into it.

Winding his arm back, the Doctor prepared to fling the book out into space, and just as his hand moved forward, the book was yanked out of his hand by an unseen yet powerful force. The book flew through the TARDIS and into Bree's waiting outstretched hand. She gave the Doctor a dirty look as she clutched her book close. "You may have done that with your manual, but you are _so not_ doing that to my book." She said, giving him a warning look both facially and vocally. The Doctor shut the doors unhappily, grumbling grumpily in Gallifreyan as he walked up the stairs to the console. "I heard that." She chided, "So you going to teach me to fly the TARDIS or not?" all she got was a dirty look. "Fine then, guess I'll have to read even more." She teased.

"NO!" the Doctor shouted, chasing Bree who was shrieking with laughter up the stairs and deeper into the TARDIS.

* * *

_**A/N: the book in question in the story is the real-life book: **_**Doctor Who, The TARDIS Handbook: The Official Guide To The Best Ship In The Universe by Steve Tribe, printed by BBC Books. _By saying this, it is pretty obvious what Bree made invisible above. All rights due where they belong._**


End file.
